Madrid Open | Félix Auger-Aliassime loses in his first match

Félix Auger-Aliassime was unable to overcome his demons on Saturday on clay in Madrid. In fact, he was his own enemy. Upon his return to play, the Quebecer lost in three sets of 6-2, 3-6 and 7-6 (5) to Dusan Lajovic.

Auger-Aliassime returned to action, more than a month after his last game in Miami. Bothered by knee problems, the ninth player in the world had an appointment with Lajovic for his first duel.

A trap game for the right-handed player, for three reasons. First, he had lost his two previous clashes against the Serb. The latter had just won the Banja Luka Omnium by beating Novak Djokovic and Andrey Rublev. Then, because Auger-Aliassime struggled at the start of the tournament this season. Unconvincing since January, the 22-year-old athlete is struggling to get going quickly. Then, clay represented an interesting challenge for a return to the game, given its complexity, its adaptation and the difficulties caused by this surface on already sore joints.

An act in three stages

To sum up the meeting, we must plan for the last tiebreaker of the match. It alone represents the entire meeting and its turn.

The two attackers shared the first two rounds. They caused an ultimate battle by going 6-6 unbroken.

Lajovic had priority on serve. He bombarded his opponent, overwhelmed and overtaken by the Serb’s lethal slaps. It was 5-0. The Quebecer was in the cables. His opponent was knocking him down. At the same time, Auger-Aliassime did not help himself, appearing fragile and shaken.

The fact remains that he was able to repel his opponent thanks to two points necessary for his survival, in particular thanks to two delights in the service. Lajovic came back stronger, but afterwards, due to a stunning display of character, Auger-Aliassime saved his third, fourth and fifth match points of the encounter. Lajovic’s last parallel forehand, however, was fatal.

The match also went like this.

Auger-Aliassime’s departure was simply atrocious. He certainly needed a certain period of adaptation, but against a player as smoldering as Lajovic, it was not necessary to drag on.

The Quebecer was broken in the first game. It was to wonder, at that time, if the problems known to the service during the Sunshine Double (Indian Wells and Miami) were going to come back to haunt him on clay. Two games later, he was broken again. It was 3-0 and Lajovic’s body hadn’t expelled a single drop of sweat yet. In 35 short minutes, the sleeve was folded. However, credit must be given to the Serb. His anticipation game limited Auger-Aliassime and his powerful strikes disarmed him.

On the other hand, Auger-Aliassime was not the shadow of himself. His knee seemed to hold up, but his precision and application on strikes faltered.

He recovered superbly, however, in the following round. The seventh seed of the tournament was whole. Even if Lajovic made him work from left to right, Auger-Aliassime had the answer to everything. The strikes were heavy on each side and the fact that FAA was able to resist, even if sore, remains good news in the short term.

Too much irregularity

Despite plenty of goodwill, and a dubious call from the official about his time on serve late in the third set that seemed to distract Auger-Aliassime, the latter was uneven from start to finish.

The Quebecer dominated his opponent in terms of winners with 37, but he also brought back more unforced errors, with 40.

It’s hard to win matches at this level with near-exact equivalence in these two defining columns.

By wanting too much to provoke the perfect game, what the 40^e world player forced his opponent to do, Auger-Aliassime ended up getting burned.

We must also mention the service, the weapon of choice of the big guy of 6’4”. In this chapter, he too was too disparate, with 12 aces, but 11 double faults.

This kind of performance will inevitably occur when only 57% of first serves are successful. Especially when the second-ball win ratio drops to 37%.

The good news for Auger-Aliassime is that he will have time to make the necessary corrections for the Roland-Garros tournament. This match is undoubtedly a mistake, but it would have been interesting to see him advance in the tournament to arrive on time, tested and confident at the Porte d’Auteuil.